Massachusetts 1993. Micky Ward is an up-and-coming welterweight boxer starting to make a name for himself in the professional circuit. His major obstacles, however, aren't his opponents in the ring, but rather spotty training from his crack-addicted former boxer brother Dicky Eklund, and poor managing by his mother Alice.
I'm a guy who knows nothing about sports in general, let alone boxing. I am also a guy who tends to roll his eyes every time he sees the words "Based on a True Story." Last year's Oscar-darling The Fighter is a boxing drama that covers all the requisite bases and offers no real surprises, but it's a well put together film that really gets you into its world and cheering or cringing alongside its protagonist. I've never seen Mark Wahlberg give a performance I would call impressive, and The Fighter doesn't remedy that, but it's not too hard to see why Christian Bale as Dicky and Melissa Leo as Alice both won Oscars for theirs. And even if Wahlberg can't really act his way out from under those shadows, he still looks like a big beefy Mark Wahlberg for the duration so I'm not going to complain. It's a funny and moving story of human triumph, and also Amy Adams is in it to appeal to the straight demographic. Any subtext there might be is pretty shallow, but it's mostly a character study, and I guess there's always room in the world for a few more sports training montages and Never Give Up speeches.
Although seriously, Paramount, that was, like, one of the worst trailers I've ever seen.
For anyone who missed Christian Bale's acceptance speech, here is Dicky Eklund's website.
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